...and so she became a Doctor in Biochemistry!

"I passed"

On behalf of Alice, the lab got a family in Africa a goat and the card read:

"Congratulations! You goat a PhD".

celebrating with her lab colleagues and friends
Her superviser, her, Joel and I. David is behind the camera. can you see him?

It was May 15th, 1983 around 4:15 AM when I woke up with some pains, that could well be labor pain. By 8:23 AM, that same morning, my labour pains had become a gorgeous baby girl, Alice. 25 years and 11 months later, she becomes a Doctor in Biochemistry!!

I've been trying to word the feeling, the thoughts, the emotions, the heart palpitation and am failing miserably...I guess it's impossible, and at the same time just so AWESOME! What a sensation to see your little one, whose diapers you have changed, walk into the room with a big fat smile saying "I passed". Congratulations Alissoca, we are speechless with your accomplishments, specially at your age and so completely totally proud of you! Viva!! Bravo!!

Dinner with some more dear friends

My face as I opened the door to find Lorraine right at our door!

The 4 girls united again!

A toast to life!

It's now, Saturday Feb. 14th and some very dear friends are coming for some more celebrations. This time round the common language will be English, as people are from all over. The decoration I chose for the cake was a turn table, to honour the old vinyl LPs. The dinner was just as enjoyable and fun as the lunch and it had a huge surprise factor added to it.

The story goes like this: at some point during the day, my darling husband said that may be we could be ready some 20/30 minutes earlier, as foreigners do respect the time they are invited for. So, as the invitation had been for 8 PM, there we were, ready and watching BBC at 7:35 PM. At 7:45 sharp, the bell rang and as I walked to the door, I thought to myself: wow, Joel really hit the target, good for him! I had not idea which of our guests was so punctual to arrive at the party a bit earlier, but honestly, that was not a problem, as it was all set and ready to roll.

Oh my Lord help me here, as I opened the door, my very dear Lorraine, who is now living in Glasgow, Scotland, was right there, all dressed up, ready to hug me for my 50's! It was so totally unbelievable and at the same time so real. It was her, it was her laughter I was listening to, it was her bear hugs I was receiving... but how could it be, I had just received a card from her with the Royal stamp... it was her, here in HK, how awesome!! Thank you very much for all this team of people who put this delicious surprise together. Absolutely priceless sensation! I loved it, loved it!!

Dear K & L together with their darlings husbands, came to the dinner party together with Lorraine. I then found out that everybody else knew about the surprise, even Joel and Alice (in the UK), knew about it!

Because of privacy, I'm not posting pictures with everybody else.

Lunch with the Brazilian ladies

Speaking to Alice & David in the UK

I wonder what story Joel was telling us....

The cake!

While I was saying a few words.

Our lobby dressed up for the parties.

Joel and the cake

Speaking to my brother M in Brazil

Carlota wishing me happy birthday

Joel, myself and J

Joel, myself and gorgeous Victoria harbour.

Wow, this week it has been REALLY wow! So many celebrations to welcome the new decade that I believe I have put on at least 5/6 kilos with all the food that has been going around, LOL! Must confess that these were the most delicious kilos I have eveer gained in my entire life, LOL! I thought, "since I can't delay the arrival of the 50's, let me at least welcome it in style" and in style it has been!!

On Friday, just before I was about to leave home to buy some flowers to decorate the flat, the bell rang and voila... a florist arrived "bringing" my parents and older brother. What a warm surprise that was! They had written to Joel asking for all the arrangements to be made. Joel, knowing that I wanted some flowers around the flat, made sure the delivery was made prior to me going for them. How wonderful! It was like having them present at both parties. Fabulous!

On Friday, we had the Brazilian ladies for lunch. Loads of fun and we were chit chatting until almost the end of the afternoon. Joel was a Darling barman and helped me host them all. I wasn't going to have any cakes, just lunch, but Joel convinced me that no birthday party is complete without a cake. So rush rush and had a cake made. I asked it's decorations to reflect my delicious hobby, which by the way, I inherited from daddy - photography.

On Friday evening, we went out for dinner at Isola, with its beautiful view facing Victoria Harbour with dear friend J. From the pictures, you clearly see that my hair was already gone by then, it shows that it had had a very long day, LOL!!

The Season has started!

A, myself and Joel at the Pawn. Gorgeous metal lace background, no?

Myself and A. at the stylish "The Pawn".

Joel and I just before leaving home.

So my dear friends and family, my 50th birthday celebrations have started! Wow, this is such a thrill... it's for real, I am almost there... Tonight, our friend A, invited us out for dinner, as he won't be able to come for the party. He took us to this relatively new restaurant in town, called "The Pawn", which is a VERY cool and stylish restaurant in Wan Chai. It was a wonderful way to start this special season. I loved it, thank you A!

Half a century has gone!!

My 50th birthday is knocking at my door... it's so funny thinking that I am already here! When I was a mid teenager, I used to think that I wanted to die at 40, because for me, living the typical "teen" days, being 40 was "very old" and I didn't want to be old. Then, when I least expected, I was preparing the party for my 40th birthday. Oops, I still had loads to do and to see, I wasn't ready to die yet, LOL!

Yesterday I went out to get a few things for both parties. I will be having my Brazilian friends on one day and my English speaking friends on another day and while I was out yesterday, I had the thought "you only turn 50 once, so do it well". Then, coming back home I had to laugh at myself... you only turn whatever age once in your lifetime. Nobody turns 37 twice or 43 twice for that matter... all ages only come once in your lifetime and that is why we must enjoy and find fun the whole time.

However, turning 50 became a benchmark. This figure represents half century, means menopause, means maturity should be full on active, means the world respects you and at the same time, expects you to be more sensible, means gravity is stronger, means grey hair, means possibibly more free time... ai ai ai ui ui ui not sure I can handle all that, LOL!

Anyway, it's time to celebrate those 50 years that have all the traditional ups and downs of a life well and fully lived. Amen to that and I take this opportunity to thank God to have brought me all the way here and for my mother who gave me my first ever "face cream kit" back when I was 20. I thoroughly love being alive.

Needing a routine

Wonder what was going through her mind...







Today, oh what a day it was! I was blue and needed a serious shake. I think today I reached rock bottom with this China and Angola story and as a consequence, I realized I so need a routine. My old one is no longer operable, so I need to impose myself a new one. Things need to happen or else I'll drawn.

This is funny... when we are in a routine we very often say "oh my routine is so boring, I need to break it, I need a change." Now, here I am, begging for one... funny life! LOL!

So, I remembered something I used to do with my daughter Alice. She inherited a certain gene from her father, my 1st husband who has already passed away. He had many great attributes, but one thing I don't miss is his bad mood in the morning. To my despair, when I least expected, I saw Alice acting the same, e.i. being in a bad mood in the morning. I then thought to myself: "ok, your father I met as a grown up man, but you my darling Baby, you came out of me and bad mood in the morning is not going to happen." As a way to help her to get rid of this DNA detail, I used to take her to the bathroom, opened the toilet, made sure she "scrubbed off" all the bad mood into the toilet and saw it being flushed away.

So, in an analogy to what I used to do 2 decades ago, I took a long shower, rubbed my entire body with body scrub, washed my hair with a head massage, dried myself, got dressed and went out. As a scrapbooker that I am, I went out to do what I like most: take photographs! Joel is not in town, so decided to take Carlota with me to Stanley, this lovely area by the sea in HK . The afternoon was beautiful, people were happily enjoying life in Stanley and so were the two of us.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of Stanley.

Back at home with Carlota

Back home safe and sound. Amen! Got into cold HK this morning to find Alpha, our helper, and Carlota doing well. This time I did not fuss around with Carlota the minute I walked into the flat to avoid the scare Joel and I had when we arrived back from Rio last time.

In case you are not really aware who Carlota is, I'll tell you. Although you may think from photographs that she is a boxer dog, in reality, for my eyes only, she is my third child. It's like she is a "human dog", LOL, and I salute her for that.

She is a 11 year old puppy and has been with us since she was 6 weeks old. We got her in Jo'burg and she has been a fantastic, full on, very participative member of our lives. When we were to move from Jo'burg to HK, Joel got 4 quotes for our move. Three were on moving companies and one was on "travel-pet" type of service. P., Joel's boss at the time, tried to raise his eyes from his desk as he was looking into the quotes and ask Joel if the dogs (at the time, we had Siggy too), should really come to HK. Joel, in his traditional calm "trader" mode's voice, saw what was coming and interrupted his boss right at the beginning of his sentence and said: "P. I did try to talk the 3 girls into not taking them and I was instantly fried" to what his boss replied "ok then, we'll take the dogs to HK". Amen to P.'s understanding.

But anyway, when Joel and I arrived back from Rio, Carlota really scared us to death (I think I lost about 5 kg on her account and gained some good half dozen gray hairs in that instant). This is what happened: we called our helper from the airport train to let her know we were about to get home. This is understood between Alpha and I as: "please take Carlota out now for a pee, so that she doesn't pee on us nor on the floor as she demonstrates her happiness with our arrival.

We got to HK station and got a taxi up the hill, got into our lobby, into the elevator, pressed 14, got to our door and on purpose, I rang the door bell rather than using our own key. Carlota, as expected, started barking, I barked back at her, called her name, she barked a bit more and all was very festive. She barking from inside, me barking from outside and Joel, kindly unloading the lift, "so happy" with all the noise!! Then, the helper opened the door and the real festive reception started. She jumped at Joel and I, we played back at her, we called her name, saying how much we had missed her, she didn't pee, we started rolling in the luggage and as I turned towards Carlota for some more cuddling... she looked at me and totally collapsed!

There she was, completely collapsed on the floor, still breathing, with her eyes half opened and half closed... we both caressing and calling her and absolutely no response. I started saying, with my stupid baby's voice, that I was going to get her toys... no response... then I said I was going to get her biscuits (which is her total passion) and no response.... how awful! You know how thoughts go fast, so all I could think was; "I am glad she waited for us to arrive back and then die and I am glad she is dieing like she really was, a happy puppy, but please Carlota, not now, I am not prepared yet.... " then I said "Joel, she is dieing"... and Joel replies.... "call the vet and at the same time, let's keep on calling for her."

So, to make this huge story shorter; this dog is, thanks be to our good God, still here with us, still a happy senior lady and what she had was diagnosed as a faint due to lack of oxygen given so much happiness to seeing us. Can you believe it??

This time, I did not ring the bell, did not call for her, but she jumped and did her usual thing. She almost collapsed again, but this time she just froze on her 4 legs for 1 or 1.5 minutes and then back to her usual self. Oh honestly, how I love this dog!